Final Fantasy IX is underrated

I’m only going to blog about Zelda two more times. Three if you count the tournament results. I’ll knock those out before the end of the month, then I’m taking a break from blogging about Zelda for a long time.

I had something else planned for a post tonight, but Final Fantasy IX has been on my mind for a couple of days. Once I finish up the second quest in Skyward Sword I’m going to play through Final Fantasy IX again before I get Rayman Origins. It’s my Christmas gift to me.

The third Final Fantasy on the PS1 took the series back to its roots, channeling the Medieval/Renaissance aesthetic sensibilities of the 16-bit games as well as the old-school narrative arcs and gameplay styles.

Final Fantasy IX’s plot does not have the convoluted and contrived plot devices of its PS1 predecessors. It does not have a main character that thinks he is someone else because he was exposed to a toxic substance trying to save the girl from his hometown who knows that he’s not who he thinks he is but does not say anything until late in the game when he remembers visiting his hometown with the person he thinks he is as well as the villain of the game; or six characters who were in an orphanage together but don’t remember each other because of monsters they can summon to fight other monsters, and even though they did not have these monsters in the beginning of the game, they still didn’t remember each other when they first met, except the one girl who didn’t say anything about it. That’s bad writing. Final Fantasy IX manages a complex plot, yet an understandable, logical plot.

Basically, Final Fantasy IX is all about an alien invasion. However, in order to assimilate themselves into their new planet, the aliens have to weed out the souls of the current inhabitants and supplant their own. The fastest way to kill off the current inhabitants and harvest their souls is to incite massive wars where many people die. That’s some dark shit. And it makes sense.

The main villain, Kuja, ties this complex plot together. He’s an underrated villain. He’s flamboyant and quite effeminate, but he’s sinister and his actions make sense. He’s not carrying around the dead body of his mother who may or may not actually be dead or his mother. He’s not a witch possessed by another witch. His actions arise out of anger and the unwillingness to face who and what he actually is. And who the main character is.

Zidane is one of the most memorable and endearing main characters in RPG’s and in gaming. He’s not a brooding douchebag with an identity crisis or an antisocial brooding douchebag who can’t take a hint from a girl. In fact, Zidane fancies himself a ladies man. He flirts and often forgets who he flirts with. He’s the type of guy who, in the middle of running from the cops or whoever, would stop to chat with a girl. He goes out of his way to help other people out of a jam or with their personal problems. He was a breath of fresh air from the direction that Square was taking their protagonists.

He assembles a variety of different characters in his party with classes all very reminiscent of classic Final Fantasy character classics. There’s a knight, a couple of white mages/summoners, a dragoon, monk and (everyone’s favorite) Vivi the Black Mage. Each of them have their own special skills and story arcs. Vivi’s storyline in particular deals a lot with mortality and fear of the unknown. He’s an incredibly endearing character not just because of his retro looks, but because of his personality and growth. Having characters with unique skills in battle makes battle much more interesting and strategic rather than just having transferable skills on characters with negligible distinctions from one another.

IX takes a page out of the Final Fantasy VI playbook and splits the characters up for segments of the game. You often don’t get a choice about who goes with who and the parties that result from the split force you to use every character wisely and learn all their strengths. Every character has their own strength in IX – even the ultra-irritating Quina. Gathering all of her Blue Magic is fun and makes her a useful character.

Quina is also unique in how he/she learns abilities. She eats enemies and learns their moves. Most characters learn abilities through equipping weapons/armor/accessories and gaining experience in battle. When Vivi equips certain staves, he learns black magic spells. Once he gains enough experience, those spells become a permanent ability in his repertoire. Furthermore, every character can learn abilities that make them immune to poisons, paralyze, etc… as well as give them a plethora of other abilities like automatically having Haste cast on them in battle. These abilities can be permanent if you “equip” them with an allotment of limited points. So, you can’t have every ability equipped at once. You have to think strategically about what abilities you want equipped. It adds an extra layer of strategy that’s not present in a lot of other Final Fantasy games.

The battles did not change much in Final Fantasy IX. It uses the same ATB system that’s been around since Final Fantasy IV (or perhaps earlier, FF III is kind of a blur). FFIX is from a simpler time when Square knew not to fix something if it wasn’t broken. Rather than change the battles, they change the method in which the characters learn abilities. So, characters take turns, faster characters get to move more often, all attacks/abilities are selected from a menu and when a character takes a lot of damage, they can strike with powerful attacks. The Trance abilities are like Overdrives, and every character has a useful one.

The music in IX is also really awesome. The music has an old-school fantasy/Renaissance vibe to it, with some touches or ragtime here and there. I could go on, but give these a listen if you’ve never heard them.

If there were one thing that I’d want to change about IX it’s that I would want to add more gameplay. I would not want to add to the story, just fill in some of the gaps with gameplay. What were Steiner and Freya up to after they got separated from the rest in Alexandria? What did Marcus have to go through to save Blank? I’d love to play more segments as Marcus and Blank. Blank is one of my favorite character in gaming. I’d much prefer a FFIX remake rather than a FFVII. Don’t get me wrong, VII is a great game. But IX has stronger characters with more interesting abilities that make for better battles and a better story. It’s one of, it not the best Final Fantasy games. It’s highly underrated.